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Devils discussion (news, notes and speculation) - playoff edition

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He’s a freak. You absolutely unload Silayev Casey (and or Nemec) to the Canucks with Mercer and a pick to get him.

He’s much better than Makar the last two years, and he doesn’t have MacKinnon in front of him.
 
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SteveCangialosi123 said:
Miles off is needing a Jack Hughes or Nico Hischier to be a contender. Miles off is not needing a top 6 wing and 3rd line center. Do you not remember the days of praying to one day have a 1C? We have 2.
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I remember the days of wishing we had a #1 center while winning 40+ games every season and making the playoffs wasn't even a consideration because of course we would.

Now we've had both centers since 2019 and in those 7 seasons we made the playoffs 2 times and finished bottom 10 of the league the other 5 seasons.

I'm not sure how that's a positive thing? Looks more miles off to me?
 
JimEIV said:
I remember the days of wishing we had a #1 center while winning 40+ games every season and making the playoffs wasn't even a consideration because of course we would.

Now we've had both centers since 2019 and in those 7 seasons we made the playoffs 2 times and finished bottom 10 of the league the other 5 seasons.

I'm not sure how that's a positive thing? Looks more miles off to me?
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Yeah, when you just don't consider any context at all and pretend two things are equivalent, it does look worse.

The Devils were never without a top line center in those years - they had either Gomez or Elias. People obviously wanted better players than that, because they exist, but those guys tend to be difficult to acquire. They also had an excellent goaltender, solid wing depth, and enough D to make it through. If you're for some reason talking about the mid to late 90s, the Devils had literally everything else - 4 full lines, great D, great system, great goaltending.

When Elias was finally cooked is when the franchise began to falter.
 
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Triumph said:
Yeah, when you just don't consider any context at all and pretend two things are equivalent, it does look worse.

The Devils were never without a top line center in those years - they had either Gomez or Elias. People obviously wanted better players than that, because they exist, but those guys tend to be difficult to acquire. They also had an excellent goaltender, solid wing depth, and enough D to make it through. If you're for some reason talking about the mid to late 90s, the Devils had literally everything else - 4 full lines, great D, great system, great goaltending.

When Elias was finally cooked is when the franchise began to falter.
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I'm not looking to get into a pissing match with you but a couple of major points...

I know you have mentioned that you were a fan then so I know you know....not a single fan ever considered Elias or Gomez a #1C....there was that short moment where the EGG line was pretty dominant and it looked like Gomez was a legit top line center, he was gone before we even knew the reality of it....for a couple of brief moments Zajac also felt like a #1 C.

As incredible as he was, Elias in the C slot was always an improvisation.

The D after the lockout was never really good. I value Rafalski a lot lower than most but regardless after he left ,the personnel on the blue line was very pedestrian. Paul Martin was our #1 up to 2010 and he would've 3/4 on a lot of teams in the league during that time.
 
britdevil said:
The players are as delusional as some posters on here.

They just got limped into the playoffs and got their shit pushed in by Carolina in 5 games. f***ing deluded.

They are miles off.
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They’re not far off at all. Whether they’re able to fix things is an unknown because you have 15 mil burning a hole in your pocket on 2 guys with strong trade protections. The actual roster though compared to where it should be is certainly not “miles off”. The things that need to be improved aren't incredibly hard to improve.
 
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The Devils have a superstar center in Jack, a workhorse two way center that can score 30+ goals in Nico, an elite play driving winger in Bratt, and a potential elite defenseman in Luke. Teams that are "miles away" don't have those types of players.

Obviously simply having those players is no guarantee of winning. They need to be supplemented by the right supporting cast, which they have yet to do. The core guys performed well enough in the playoffs. They got zero contributions from anybody else until game 5. Which would seem to suggest that improving the depth might be important. But I guess people with agendas against certain members of the core need to recycle the same talking points again.
 
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JimEIV said:
It's been almost 3 months since he's had surgery. I read that it was a separated shoulder injury.

" Complete ligament tear and dislocation, may take 6-12 weeks to heal. ".

Then there's rehabilitation...total 4 to 6 months. He's probably healed but still has a lot of strength and conditioning ahead of him.
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Just lucky he didn’t shatter his clavicle
 
Emperoreddy said:
I get being frustrated, but some of you act like we weren't locked into the top 3 for the entire regular season and were a playoff team.

This was a playoff team this year and its going to be a playoff team next year.
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Sure but let's not ignore the context of the standings of this season. Our records gets us in this year and would've gotten us in last year. Since the 05 lockout the only other year 91 pts gets you in is 2010. 3 out of 20. We were a fake playoff team.
 
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Hisch13r said:
Sure but let's not ignore the context of the standings of this season. Our records gets us in this year and would've gotten us in last year. Since the 05 lockout the only other year 91 pts gets you in is 2010. 3 out of 20. We were a fake playoff team.
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Improved league parity is a reason those playoff totals have dropped; not because of poor play
 
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Hisch13r said:
Sure but let's not ignore the context of the standings of this season. Our records gets us in this year and would've gotten us in last year. Since the 05 lockout the only other year 91 pts gets you in is 2010. 3 out of 20. We were a fake playoff team.
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Team mailed it in the last few games of the season because the games didn't matter.
 
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Hisch13r said:
So it was parity that caused us to play at a 77 pt pace for the last 45 games of the year? Not poor play?
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It was losing Nico for a month, then Siegs for two months, then Jack for the season, and then Dougie after that.

Markstrom was hurt in the middle of all that as well.

They would have had a stronger 2025 if they stayed healthy.
 
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SJinNewJersey said:
Team mailed it in the last few games of the season because the games didn't matter.
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Even if true and they scrounged up a few more pts I don't see why the bar is ever just "playoff team". Just simply being a playoff team when half the league makes the playoffs means f*** all to me. So what that we got to play 5 extra games. I remember after 22-23 everyone talking about how the bar has been raised. Now you've got people applauding just limping into the playoffs as a complete afterthought.
 
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